


Checkmate

by gay4tae



Category: TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Chess, Choi Soobin-Centric, Developing Friendships, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Inspired by Chihayafuru, M/M, Shy Huening Kai, Student Choi Soobin, Student Huening Kai, Sweetheart Huening Kai, Team Feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 09:07:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21407695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gay4tae/pseuds/gay4tae
Summary: Not having really been good at anything in his life, Soobin suddenly discovers a newfound passion when a new transfer student enters his life and introduce him to the magical, strategic, brutal world of chess. Together, they form their own chess club with the goal of becoming grandmasters and with their teammates, they play to win. However, one day, a tragedy is bestowed upon the team and chess is quickly abandoned by one of the members. And along with chess is the club completely abandoned, too.Distraught, Soobin tries everything in his power to hold up what’s left of the team, as well as what’s left of his heart.
Relationships: Choi Soobin & Huening Kai, Choi Soobin/Huening Kai
Comments: 7
Kudos: 25





	Checkmate

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> I am super excited to write this au! This au is actually half inspired from the anime, Chihayafuru, that my friend introduced me to years ago. The anime is sooo good, I've rewatched it a couple times before and I recently found out that they finally came out with season 3 after six years!!! I've recently started watching it again with my little sister and I just had to make an au inspired from this amazing anime. And if anyone has seen the anime and wants to know what ship im rooting for, it's definitely ArataxChihaya since day1. Taichi does however and without a doubt has one of, if not the best, character development throughout the entire series. 
> 
> Sorry for the long note, pls enjoy! (≧ω≦*)

Boring.

Soobin couldn’t think of anything else to describe his current class that he’s forced to sit through. He stares blankly at the board as he unconsciously started drowning out the teacher’s voice and began letting his mind wander freely. A thought suddenly occur to him as he sat there in his same, usual seat in the same, usualy, stuffy classroom. 

He’s never really been good at anything in his life. Nothing excites him or make his heart flutter and pound with passion. At first, it frustrated him that there was nothing that he could find that he could be deeply interested in. He had no hobbies and wasn’t good at any sport. Academics wasn’t one of his strongest suits, either. More often than not, he finds himself feeling like he’s just floating around, thrifting through life as he watches everyone live their life to the fullest. Everyday's the same old routine he’s grown too familar with to the point where everything that passes by him is a blur. The feeling of emptiness taking over his mind and body grows more intense as each day passes until he’s left feeling like a human vessel drained of life. Hollow inside.

It wasn’t until the fourth bell had rung, indicating that class was now over and lunch has begun that made Soobin sprung up from his seat enthusiastically for the first time today.

He quickly gathered all of his materials and supplies off his desk and quickly threw it into his backpack, not really paying attention (or caring) where his stuff ends up being. After hastily zipping up his backpack with minimal effort, the tall, dark haired eighteen years old boy is making his way towards the cafeteria.

Rushing through the halls, Soobin’s steps comes to an abrupt halt as he suddenly remembered something important. He turned on his heels and quickly started walking the other way, heading for the library. Students flood the halls as loud chatters grew in volume and he tries his best to dodge and weave his way through the crowd without any minor accidents.

He finally reaches the entrance to the library and thows open the door to walk in. As soon as the door had shut closed behind him, the loud, chaotic noise from the hallway faded away in the background and all he can hear is the defeaning sound of silence with the occasional noise of pencil scribbling on paper and the sound of pages being flipped as students quietly indulge themselves in studying. 

Soobin began making his ways towards the far back of the library where there were usually no students around. When he found the aisle he was looking for, he turns the corner and stopped dead in his tracks.

Just a couple of yards away, a small boy was sitting on the floor, back leaning against the bookshelves and a book was placed neatly on his lap. His head was angled downwards and he seemed to be completely absorbed in his book that he failed to notice Soobin’s large looming presence.

As the light peeked through the cheap, plastic blinds that hung over the window, casting a soft, warm glow over the boy, Soobin couldn’t help but stare silently in awe, completely, yet unknowingly captivated by the scene before him. If it wasn’t for the boy turning his head around to look at him after feeling an intense stare on him, Soobin thought he would’ve still kept staring for longer.

The smaller boy quickly turned his head away in embarrassment and awkwardness took over his body from being looked at strangely for a long time. Soobin was quick to notice his unease and how he seemed to suddenly grow uncomfortable under his silent gaze. With a soft gasp, realization hit him at last.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” he said, voice full of regret.

“I didn’t mean to stare for so long, I was just…” Soobin tries to think of something else to say besides that he was goggling him for his pleasant looks.

“People usually don’t come back here. So, I was just a bit surprised to find someone here is all.”

Soobin saw that the stranger’s eyes kept darting back and forth between the floor and the book in his lap as he was busy trying to figure out what to say to the new company he had.

Soobin noticed that the boy seemed to be lonely and he suddenly remembers back in freshman year when he, too, was lonely and hadn’t made any friends. He has people he talks to in class but does nothing more than hold a casual conversation with. He’s never really had friends that he could text or call randomly at three in the morning or friends to invite over to his house. So, in a way, he can understand the feeling of being alone by himself all too much.

Without really thinking, Soobin steps closer to the boy and planted himself down next to him. The smaller boy quickly swung his head around to look at him with startled eyes as Soobin looked down at the book on his lap.

“What’cha reading?”

The stranger looked back at his book and Soobin could tell he was debating on whether or not to speak. Soobin thought he had crossed the line and misinterpret the whole situation and that maybe the smaller boy just wanted to have some privacy. But before he could apologize for overstepping his boundaries, the stranger spoke up.

“It’s a book about chess,” he replies timidly, but clearly.

Soobin sighs in relief as he leaned his head back against the shelves that was behind him, eyes shutting closed. “Oh, thank god. I thought I was bothering you there for a second.” 

The shorter boy looks away for a second, thinking, before pulling his attention back to the taller boy, lips drawn up in a small smile.

Soobin finally lifts his head up and turned his head to look at the boy beside him. “Anyways, I’m Choi Soobin,” he introduces with a smile that stretches wide enough to reveal his dimples.

“Hello,” the shorter boy greeted politely. “I’m a new transfer student. My name’s Huening Kai. I’m a freshman.”

Soobin’s eyes widens at that. “Really?” he asks, face clearly drawn up in shock. “That makes you my donsaeng, then,” he stated.

“Nice to meet you, hyung. I hope we get along well together.”

Not being able to control himself any longer, Soobin finally latches out and pulled the smaller boy towards him. “You’re so cute, you’re like a baby.”

Although he couldn’t see, the younger cringed at his words. “I’m not a baby, I’m sixteen.”

“A full grown baby,” the taller insisted stubbornly.

Kai only sighs at his hyung’s behavior, shaking his head lightly. When there wasn’t anything else to say, Soobin brought up about his book again. 

“So you must really like chess, then, if you’re reading a book about it.”

“I do,” the younger confirms. Kai bit his lips, shyly looking down at his lap before opening his mouth to speak, “Do you know how to play?”

“Yeah,” Soobin replies. “I’m familiar with the rules and all, but—”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Soobin couldn’t help but notice that the younger’s whole demeanor entirely changed as he stared at him with bright, twinkling eyes. “We should play!”

“Oh, sure,” he agrees to play. “Do you have an app downloaded on your phone or something?”

At that, the younger’s face turned sheepish at the question. Soobin’s curiousity about his new friend only hightened. 

“I was thinking we could play using an actual board,” Kai admitted shyly.

“That’s fine with me but where are we going to get a board?”

“It’s fine,” the younger answered simply. “I have one in my backpack.”

Soobin only continue to stare confusedly at the shorter boy.

As if sensing his confusion, Kai looks shyly away, embarrassment returning back to his body.

“It’s a little weird, isn’t it?”

“No! Not really, but—well...I—”

Kai giggles as he witness the taller boy fumbles with his words rather clumsily.

“You don’t have to lie. I know it’s kinda weird.”

“But, why do you bring a chessboard to school?” he asks before quickly adding, “If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”

Kai giggles at that.

“Of course not, silly. I was actually planning on forming a chess club here at this school since it seems that there isn’t one,” he answers.

“Yet.”

Soobin’s face turned to shock again before he quickly replaced his face with a large smile 

“That sounds really fun!” he exclaims a little too loudly, receiving a distant shush from somehwere in the room.

“Shall we play now?”

Soobin nods and they both got up from their position on the ground to walk over to a nearby, isolated area with an empty table. They sat across from each other as Soobin sat quietly in his chair, observing the shorter boy as he set out to work. Soobin watches the younger as he pulls the wooden board out of his backpack to place it in the center of the table between them. He thens watches him take out a drawstring pouch and dump out the content on top of the board. Black and white chess pieces fell out of the pouch and now laid sprawled out everywhere.

“You can take white, I’ll take the black pieces,” the younger offers as he began taking the black pieces and setting them up on his side of the board.

“Oh, okay. Thanks,” Soobin said before imitating the younger and doing the same of setting up his pieces on his side. Once the preparation for the match was completed, Soobin looks up at the shorter boy curiously. “Since I’m white, I begin the game first, right?”

Kai nodded in answer.

Soobin shrugs his shoulder and chose a random piece from his side. He grabbed a pawn in front of the king piece and moved it two squares forward. Kai took the pawn in front of one of his bishops that was next to his queen and moved it two squares up as well. The game followed with Soobin moving his knight to g1 and Kai placing his pawn in front of his queen one square towards the center so that he now had a small army of pawns lined up diagonally in defense to protect each other. 

Soobin, too, placed one pawn in front of his queen forward but up by two squares so that it was diagonally placed near the first pawn that Kai had moved. He was hoping that the younger would get greedy and capture his pawn so that his knight could then capture his black pawn. And he did.

Soobin couldn’t hold himself back as a smile of triumph made its way to his face. He looked up to see the younger’s reaction and was expecting a look of surprise on his face or to see him look bashful for falling for such an easy trap. However, neither one of those was what he saw. 

When he looked at the younger’s face, he saw that the boy’s face was calm, eyes concentrating. He noticed that he held a composed posture locked in place whereas Soobin had his back slumped and shoulders slouched heavily and he quickly straightened out his shoulders as a reflex.

Soobin turned his attention back down at the board when he saw Kai’s hand move for one of his knights. Following the movement of his hand, Soobin watches as he places the piece down on f6. Soobin does the same, moving his other knight to c3. Seeing as his hyung copied his action, Kai also brought his other knight onto the battlefield. Now, both had all their knights out.

Deciding to be bold and daring, Soobin moves one of his bishops that was next to his queen to g5 which was diagonally placed from one of Kai’s knights. Kai moves his bishop too, but only one square diagonally across.

Soobin tried to analyze the younger’s move but couldn’t come to understand his decision. Shrugging his shoulders once again, thinking Kai was already beginning to give up, he decides to move his queen early in the game by one square forward.

Kai moved his rook so that it was next to his own queen, further puzzling the older with his decision. 

Soobin then moved his other bishop so that it was in front of his king.

As they were still in the opening part of the game, it didn’t take long for each player to move their pieces. However, as they were quickly approaching the middlegame, Soobin was finding it more difficult to decide which piece he should move and where he should place them at. 

It was Kai’s turn and to make matters worse, he moved his knight on c6 to capture one of his own knights on d4. Soobin quickly grew insecure and captured his knight with his queen, hardly thinking about the consequences of his abrupt action in the long run when they would soon be approaching the endgame.

At last, Kai finally moves his queen to a5. At this point, Soobin’s head was starting to throb a little with how much thinking this match was making him do. He couldn’t remember the last time he’s ever thought long and hard about something besides having to choose between chocolate or ice cream for dessert. He started fidgeting his leg and poked his tongue out between his lips in concentration. 

He takes a deep breath, feeling the air slowly enter his body causing his chest to rise and lower as he exhales.

And then he saw it. 

With the new position Kai’s queen was in, it put his bishop in jeopardy as it was aligned horizontally with Kai’s queen. No other pieces was in the way. Perfect for a capture if he wasn’t paying attention. 

But luckily, he was.

Immediately, Soobin moved his bishop away from the line of attack and onto f6, essentially capturing Kai’s knight. He knew that by doing so, his bishop would be captured by one of Kai’s pawns, but by doing this exchange, he could at least bring the game to a draw if he couldn’t sucessfully put his opponent in checkmate. 

As expected, Kai captures his bishop with one of his pawns. Soobin looks at the bottom row of his side of the board and noticed that his king was almost left defenseless and vulnerable as there were plenty of spaces around the king that any of Kai’s pieces could move to. Slowly but surely, Soobin was beginning to remember more and more of what he was taught about chess. It was all starting to come back to him.

Seeing as there were no pieces in between his king and one of his rooks, Soobin made a castle move and his legs became even more jittery in excitement at remembering how to do a fancy move.

All of a sudden, Soobin began to relax. Most of his nerves were gone and he was soon consumed with a boost of confidence.

The game continues on with Kai moving his rook one square to g8, Soobin moving his knight to d5, and then Kai finally capturing one of his pieces with his other rook. However, Soobin was still poised and didn’t panic too much as the piece that he had captured was just one of his pawns, the least valuable piece on the board.

Going for a more agressive tactic, Soobin places his pawn diagonally to Kai’s queen. Kai simply couteracted by moving his queen one square forward, away from any danger. Soobin makes another attempt to approach his queen using his bishop. Although the queen was on a different colored square, the bishop would ward off Kai’s queen from entering its line of sight, in fear of being captured.

Soobin’s heart nearly jumped out of his chest when he saw that Kai moved his rook down to capture the pawn that was defending his king. He was so caught up with what was happening on the left side of the board that he forgot to pay attention to what was happening on the other side. His distress was quickly vanished as he retorted by capturing Kai’s rook with his king. Catching him offguard once again, Kai goes for the attack by moving his bishop from all the way from his side of the board to planting it diagonally from his king. 

Soobin curses quietly under his breath as he’s forced to have his king retreat one square back to its previous position. 

However, Kai was nowhere finished with his attacks. On his turn, he moves his queen closer towards the king on f3, preparing to close in on Soobin’s endangered king. Forced to go on the defense, Soobin takes his knight and moves it back, closer to his king, in order to provide more protection. Kai picks up the bishop besides his king which he hasn’t touched since now and drags it all the way to g6, two squares diagonally forward, which is aligned to capture Soobin’s knight he recently just moved. 

Soobin proceeded with moving his queen back all the way down to the bottow row, hoping to get Kai’s queen to retreat back, but his move ends up doing more harm than good as Kai moves his queen to capture his knight which was left defenseless after Soobin had moved his queen away.

Silently in his head, Soobin begins calculating how much each of them had pieces left on the board. He counted ten white pieces and twelve black pieces. In terms of quantity, Kai had a lead with having two more pieces than Soobin.

Soobin let a loud puff of air escaped him as he proceeded to whine.

“Damn it, I messed up.”

Waiting for the younger to comment words of encouragement or giggle at finally having the advantage, Soobin finally tore his eyes away from the board to look up at the boy sitting across from him. 

_ Huh? _

He had to blink his eyes several times to see if what he was seeing was right.

Although it had to have been almost fifteen minutes since they’ve started playing, Soobin noticed that the younger now seem to possess a whole new air that surrounded him like an aura. His perfect posture never faltered once throughout their match and his intense gaze on the board remained unwavering. It was as if he had become an entirely different person. 

Soobin didn’t think anyone could emit a type of aura so strong that his opponent could actually feel the change in the atmosphere between them. He continues to stare mindlessly at the shorter boy in a mixture between astonishment and admiration. Realizing that he was taking up a lot of time, Soobin returned his attention back to the board and quickly took a few seconds to observe the playing field. He no longer just wanted to play. 

He wanted to win.

Not wanting to remain on the defense, Soobin moved his queen forward four squares vertically up on d5 and Kai simply returned his queen back one square to the right, back to the previous position it was. With his queen’s new position, Soobin starts playing agressively again. He picks up his queen and moved it to hover above one of Kai’s pawns and lands it down, swapping the pieces.

Now, Kai’s king is left vulnerable to being checkmated as Soobin’s queen is placed diagonally from his king. Soobin allows a small grin on face as he thought this would be the moment he makes his greatest comeback.

To move his king out of Soobin’s queen direct line of sight, Kai moves his king one square diagonally forward so that his pawn is now in between his king and Soobin’s queen. Intending to get his pieces to surround the younger’s king, Soobin moves his bishop one square diagonally forward, putting Kai in check. 

What Soobin didn’t see coming, however, is Kai moving his rook (that he overlooked) and bringing it back from Soobin’s side of the board to his own side, effectively avoiding checkmate by getting in between Soobin’s bishop and his king.

Not giving up without a fight, Soobin continues to still go after Kai’s king by moving his queen one square diagonally forward so that his queen would still have more room to move while endangering Kai’s king at the same time. And that’s when it hit him. 

Soobin observes the pieces again and he realized that there was very little to no chance of him actually winning. There was no way Soobin could possibly checkmate him unless some higher forces up above bless him with a miracle and Kai makes a dumb mistake.

Of course, that did not happen.

His queen was truly the only piece Soobin could rely on at this point for the remainder of the game. The next minute passes by quickly as the match begin coming to an end and Soobin finally hear the one word he’s been dreading to hear.

“Checkmate.”

Both boys turn their head up to look at each other. A moment of silent eye contact lasted briefly before Soobin was the first to break the silence.

“Let’s play again!”

Soobin didn’t know whether it was the adrenaline rush he got from being close to bringing his opponent to a checkmate or if it was the thrill of being on the attack or even if it was simply just because he played against a really strong player, but Soobin could feel his heart thump loudly in his chest. Unbeknownst to him, Kai’s heart was pounding just as loudly in his chest as his was.

Kai’s eyes slightly widened in surprise as his body leaned forward to ask, “Really? Are you sure?”

“Yeah! That was so much fun. I can’t believe even though I had an advantage by starting first, I still lost and I was _ so _ close to checkmating you, but then—”

Before he could continue, Soobin was abruptly cut off by the sound of the bell ringing. 

Soobin furrowed his brows as a frown now plastered his face. “Lunch is already over? That went by way too fast.”

“Oh, well…” Kai looks back down at the board as he shyly fiddled with one of the pieces. “Perhaps we can play some other time, then.”

“I’ll come by tomorrow! We can play again during lunch if you’ll still be here.”

Kai immediately whipped his head up at Soobin, excitement written all over his face, and Soobin could almost see dog ears on his head and an imaginery tail behind him wagging back and forth excitedly, reminding the older of a dog.

“S-sure!” the younger stammered out his reply.

The two begin gathering the chess pieces off the board and returning them back inside to the small pouch. After Kai had finished packing away all of his equipment into his backpack, both boys stood up from their seats and started making their way out of the library and into the noisy hall.

As they got to the end of the hallway and reached an intersection, Soobin stopped in his tracks, turning to face the younger boy as he asks him, “Which way is your class?”

Kai points in the direction to his left. “It’s this way,”

“Oh, mine’s this way.” Soobin motioned towards the opposite hallway.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then?” the younger asks.

“And this time, I’ll win.”

Kai wore a look of surprise and his eyes flickered with a glint of curiosity as he became even more intrigued by the older boy. “Okay,” he finally says at last.

“Don’t be late.”

The two boys then parted ways with their hearts still beating uncontrollably. 

As Soobin was walking to his next class, he couldn’t help but to feel like he was forgetting something important. When he entered his classroom and sat at his usual seat, his table mate turns around to ask him, “Did you get it?”

Soobin stared blankly at him and his table mate threw him a look before clarifying, “The textbook. Weren’t you supposed to go to the library and check it out so that we could share it?”

  
  


— 

  
  


The following day, they met up again and Kai won. The day after that, they played another match and Soobin still lost. The next day, they decided to play out in the courtyard so that Soobin could eat his lunch as eating was prohibited in the library. Again, Soobin lost. And it continued on like that. They would meet up almost everyday in the library or the courtyard and Soobin still wouldn’t be able to win against the younger.

On a random day they were playing outside in the courtyard, the bell rang, indicating that lunch was over and students needed to start preparing to go to their next class. As they were making their way back inside of the building, Soobin turned his head around to look at the shorter boy walking beside him, hands clenched tightly by his side as his eyes burned in determination.

“I swear. Next time we play again, I’ll win.”

Kai looks up at the older for a second before facing back forward. “Okay.”

“I will.”

“Okay.”

“I mean it!”

“I said, ‘okay’!”

Kai giggled at his antics before bidding his farewell and walking in the direction towards his own classroom. Soobin stayed behind for a little while longer watching the younger boy grow more distant further down the hall. Bringing one arm up, he reaches out towards him with his outstretched hand as all that he could think of was how far away he seems to be. The more matches he played against the younger, the more he came to realize that without a doubt, the gap between his skills and Kai’s differs tremendously. It feels like each time they played, Kai was getting better and better while he was trying his best to keep up.

Soobin let his arm drop back to his side as he let out a drawn out sigh.

  
  


—

  
  


The two boys were in the library, once again, but this time, they weren’t playing chess. When Soobin received his report card from the last quarter, it was painfully obvious that he needed to improve his skills in all areas of academics. So, Soobin now finds himself wasting precious time studying as he could instead be playing chess, improving his abilities and strategy skills. 

“This is too hard, I can’t do this,” Soobin exclaims loudly, allowing his shoulders to slump forward and rested his chin on top of the table.

A harsh _ shhh! _could be heard from across the room and Soobin stuck his tongue out at the direction of the noise despite the person not being able to see him. Kai smiles gently at the taller boy, setting his pencil down, and turning in his seat to face him.

“Of course you can, hyung. You can do anything you set your mind to,” he said determinedly, looking straight into his eyes.

Soobin stared back at the younger in deep thought before making a face. “You sound like one of those Instagram inspiration accounts that most times aren’t very motivating and hardly make sense.”

“Geez, hyung. It wouldn’t hurt to be a little positive once in awhile. Besides, it’s a lot more tiring being negative all of the time.”

“I’m not negative, I’m just being realistic,” Soobin responded nonchantly. 

Kai looked down at his feets, staying quiet for awhile. A moment of silence passed before Kai finally looked back up at the older with a serious expression.

“You know, you’re not as dumb as you make yourself out to be.”

“I barely passed last Friday’s English exam with a seventy percent. I nearly failed by forgetting to put my own name on paper!”

Kai throws him a sheepish smile in return. “It happens to the best of us.”

Soobin turned his body back around to face the table and leaned his head back, sighing deeply.

“It seems like nowadays I’m constantly making mistakes no matter where I go or what I do. It’s almost astonishing how much I fail at being a human being,” he shares quietly with the younger and although Soobin couldn’t see the look on his face, he knew Kai was giving him a disapproving look. “The sooner I embrace my incapability to be good at anything and accept that this is all I have to offer to the world, the easier it’ll be for me to get through life.” Soobin then lifted his head up to stare down at the younger. “Not everyone can be as talented and just overall good at life like you.”

Kai was taken off guard by the older’s statement. “Is that what you think of me?”

“Yes!” Soobin exclaimed with a little too much force. "And you’re very humble and sweet and nice. Honestly, I don’t think there’s a single bone in you that’s capable of hating anything or anyone.”

Kai thinks for a moment and lifts the corner of his lip in a timid smile before steering his attention back to the taller boy, eyes twinkling.

“Yeah,” he nods before agreeing softly, “You’re probably right.”

Kai stares at Soobin for a moment longer and a thought came to mind. “Well, actually no,” he admits a second after. “There is one thing I hate.”

Soobin tilts his head to the side, brows slightly raised in questioning. “What is it?”

A moment of silence hung in the air between them before Kai suddenly avert his eyes away from Soobin’s briefly just to look back at him with a softened expression.

“I hate how unfair you are to yourself.”

The words were spoken softly and his voice held a note of tenderness. Soobin was caught off guard by the raw words that fell out of the boy’s mouth. He widens his eyes in mild shock and blinks a couple of times to reassure himself that he’s still in reality and not dreaming. He could feel a blush begin to creep its way up to his cheeks and he fought to control his rapid heartbeat that was going off a thousand miles per hour in the confinement of his ribcage. 

_ Oh my god. _

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, I wasn't expecting the first chapter to be this long, but it came out long anyways |´∀｀●) And if you haven't noticed, this au will be written mainly from Soobin's pov. I don't exactly remember where, but I think I remember coming across a tweet that mentions about how Kai is usually the centric focus in sookai fics and I thought to myself, "...you right." Therefore, this au will be a Soobin centric fic and I actually quite like it. 
> 
> Although this au is inspired from chihayafuru, it is also inspired from that one episode from one dream season 2 where Kai mentioned that he used to be really good at chess. When I found out, I was pleasantly surprised and so happy! Because honestly, this au is also kinda an excuse for me to geek out on my mild obsession with chess. Although I'm not very good at chess, I still have a deep respect and admiration for the game. 
> 
> Another source I was inspired to write this au is from the Chinese, historical, fantasy drama, "The Untamed" but mainly its ost. I've been listening to the ost recently and every time I listen to it, I think back to this au.
> 
> Finally, if anyone is interested in what match I've used to write this chapter, it's the dardo sergio botto vs larry mark Christiansen chess match. If you've read this far, thank you for taking the time to read this and I'm always open to hear people's opinions and thoughts so feel free to tell me what you think! <333


End file.
